Time is our most precious personal resource; once we’ve spent it, we’ll never get it back. As busy entrepreneurs, we seem to have less time than anyone else, so it just makes sense to look for ways to use our time wisely. Here is one technique that has worked for many.

The Four D’s

When you think about it, there are only four actions you can take against any one of the many tasks you have on your plate:

1. Do it.
2. Delegate it.
3. Delay it.
4. Delete it.

As you approach each task on your to-do list, ask yourself which one of the four D’s is best. 

Do It

The first option is simply to do the task yourself.  Get it done, checked off, and out of the way.  This is often the best option if it’s urgent, important, or you are the only one with the experience and training to do it. 

It might sound counter-intuitive at first, but doing a task might not be the best option. Let’s look at the other three options before we decide. 

Delegate It

If your to-do list is full of simple, routine actions, then delegating is a strong choice. Delegating is also a great choice for tasks that are beyond your skill set and that would take too much learning-curve time away from your core work. If you don’t have time to do everything yourself, then getting help is a smart alternative to doing it yourself. 

Getting help doesn’t mean you have to hire a full-time employee. You can get help in a multitude of ways:

• Engage a company to do a task. From walking dogs to managing Google Ad campaigns to handling your bookkeeping and taxes, there are companies like ours that would be delighted to take over your task for you.
• Automation is a form of delegation. Can software do what you are doing? 
• Find someone on Fiverr.com or UpWork. You can hire someone for a five-minute task or a 5-day task. Find them on any website that lists freelancers for hire. 
• Plenty of people are looking for part-time jobs, just in case you don’t have enough work for a full-time person. 

If you can write instructions about how to perform the task, you can delegate it. And if you’re worried about losing control or quality, simply add milestones where you check the person’s work. Initially, it might not be faster, but in the long term, it will pay off.  

Delay It

If a task is not urgent or important, delaying it might be the right option. The problem with this option is that you have to handle the task at least twice: once when reviewing it and deciding whether to do it, and again when you finally decide to do it.  If you keep deciding to delay it, you’ve handled it more than twice. Not only can this take up precious time, it can be a drain on your energy as you see the incomplete task on your to-do list for a long time. 

However, there are times when delaying a task is best:

• Delay if it’s not urgent and you have other urgent items to attend to.
• Delay if it’s not important.
• Delay to prioritize other, more profitable tasks first.  
• Delay when the task is best done in batches. Here’s an example: Rather than answer each email as it comes in, think about blocking out three times a day where you check and clear your email. You can apply this time-batching concept to just about everything to gain efficiency: posting on social media (write and schedule a month’s worth in advance), returning phone calls, attending meetings (book them all on one day and keep other days clear), and running errands (delay until you have three to four errands, then do them all in one run. 

Be careful of delaying a task over and over again.  Something else may be going on with your mindset:

• The task may be uncomfortable for you (find someone that loves to do what you don’t and delegate), or
• How to get started is ambiguous (get training or find someone experienced to shorten your learning curve). 

Delete It

Some tasks should never have been added to your to-do-list in the first place. When there is no return on investment for a task, perhaps the best choice is to delete it.

Take a look at some of the things you do out of habit. Does it still make sense to do that task, or is it simply done because it was always done that way? 

Do, Delegate, Delay, Delete

Try the four-D time management trick for yourself to get an instant boost in efficiency and productivity. 

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In early August of this year, the IRS released additional guidance on the Employee Retention Credit.  For 2021, the credit was expanded to allow businesses to receive a credit of up to $7,000 per employee per quarter if their operations were fully or partially shut down by government order or if they had a significant decline in gross receipts.

One of the biggest surprises and disappointments to come out of the guidance was the IRS conclusion that wages paid to majority owners and spouses do not qualify for the credit in most cases.  How IRS arrived at this conclusion is a rather complex and confusing path that uses family attribution rules that view an entity as controlled by an owner’s family. Many tax professionals are split on whether the IRS has sufficient evidence to make this claim, so this is one that might see some court cases in the future.

The guidance also clarifies that employers are not required to use the alternative quarter election consistently from quarter to quarter. In 2021, this election allows employers to compare their gross receipts for the prior quarter, rather than the current quarter, to the corresponding calendar quarter in 2019. For example, an employer could elect to be a Q2 2021 eligible employer if its Q2 2021 gross receipts are less than 80 percent of its Q2 2019 gross receipts and could then make an alternative quarter election in Q3 2021, again relying on the gross receipts decline in Q2 2021.

Lawmakers are also considering ending the Employee Retention Credit early to move unused COVID relief funds to the infrastructure bill that the House will be voting on. 

The ERC is a lucrative cash windfall for employers that do qualify. Don’t let complexity get in the way of claiming the credit if you are eligible.  Give us a call so we can help you reduce your taxes with the ERC and any other credit you may be eligible for. 

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If you grant credit to customers or take recurring credit card payments, the unexpected can happen: a customer fails to pay on time, the credit card expires, or the check bounces. What can a business owner do to spend as little time as possible on these items but get the cash collected?  Plenty.  Here are our ideas:

Re-examine your credit policy

Is there any way you can have credit customers pay up front? Perhaps you can collect a deposit to minimize your risk. Perhaps you can request final payment right before you deliver the final product.  Perhaps you can convert credit terms to a layaway situation, like they use in retail. 

The best way to speed up collections is to change your payment terms if at all possible. 

Be proactive

If the client is late with a payment, respond quickly.  Send them proactive reminders. Give them a call just before the payment is due if you have this luxury. 

If the customer pays by credit card, monitor credit card expiration dates, and send reminders to update the card before it expires. 

Make it easy and clear on your website support section how a customer can update their credit card number on file at any time. Automating this process will save you a ton of time.

Payment failures and disputes

It’s inevitable that you will experience customers whose credit card payments, ACH withdrawals, and checks fail or bounce. As a business owner, you need to have solid procedures for you or your employees to process these exceptions. 

When a credit card payment fails, make sure your shopping cart, merchant account, or gateway processor notifies you of the failure. Contact the customer right away to correct the situation. The same is true of bounced checks or failed ACH deposits. Assess any extra fees and flag the customer account if you want to place any future payment or credit restrictions on them.     

You may also have customers that report disputes to their credit card company. Respond timely to these transactions as there is always a tight deadline, and make sure you have all of the documentation you need at the time of sale if this comes up. 

Develop solid collections processes

If the payment is late, start your collections routine.  Send out friendly reminders at first; then get progressively aggressive as the payment grows later and later. 

Follow-up steps are very important. Make sure your customer is getting your notifications, and give them a call before you have to take legal steps with them. 

Finally, if necessary, turn the payment over to a collections agency who can impact the customer’s credit report and possibly collect your money.

We hope you do not have too much of this activity in your business. But if you do, being proactive is a great way to reduce it. Check to see if you have all the processes described above in place to handle collections in your business so that your cash continues to flow. 

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Have you ever wondered why gains are separated between long-term and short-term when you receive your 1099 at tax time? There is a very good reason for that, and one you might want to consider more carefully when investing.

Short-term capital gains are derived if you hold an investment one year or less before disposing of it.  Short-term gains are taxed as “ordinary income,” the same rate you pay on wages or business profits. 

Long-term capital gains, on the other hand, are generally taxed no higher than 20% and could be taxed at 0%, depending on your income. See the table below:

Tax Filing Status	Income Range at 0% Rate	Income Range at 15% Rate	Income Range at 20% Rate
Single	0 – $40,400	$40,401 to $445,850	> $445,850
Married Filing Jointly	0 – $80,800	$80,801 to $501,600	> $501,600
Married Filing Separately	0 – $40,400	$40,401 to $250,800	> $250,800
Head of Household	0 – $54,100	$54,101 to $473,750	> $473,750

Exceptions to the long-term capital gains tax rate are collectibles such as art, jewelry, and precious metals.  These are taxed at 28% regardless of your income.  Bear in mind, though, that tax rates on ordinary income range from 10% to 37%.

Be sure to keep this information in mind when managing your investments. It could make a BIG difference come tax time!

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